Auntie Chen's was the only vegetable garden in the vicinity that had not gone to ruin. The other villagers did not mind her planting in their gardens and fields as long as she let them know.
If the land was left uncultivated, it would soon become overgrown. Some fields had weeds taller than Wen Qian. One could well imagine how laborious it would be to reclaim them later.
Auntie Chen grew more delicate vegetables in her own patch, while she planted a few pumpkins and winter melons in her neighbors' plots. That was enough to cover the entire area.
There were also loofah gourds. She grew some along the ridges near the houses. By the time they fruited, vines crawled all over the trees and thorn bushes.
Now there were pumpkins and winter melons everywhere. If she harvested them all, they could form a small mountain. Fortunately, the two pigs she kept could take care of them.
There were also silky gourds crawling all over the place down the valley. The trees on both sides of Wen Qian's house had old dried gourds hanging from them.
Speaking of which, young gourds could be stir-fried or boiled in soup, while mature ones could be used as dishcloths. Wen Qian had heard that they used to serve as loofahs for bathing.
In some places, decoctions of gourd pulp could clear summer heat, though Wen Qian was unsure of the actual effects. She had only read about it online.
Nevertheless, she quite enjoyed using them to wash dishes. She was also curious to try bathing with them. After all, they were all-natural, chemical-free, and needed no fertilizers or pesticides to grow lushly.
There were still a few unpeeled mature gourds hanging on the kitchen wall. Wen Qian would peel and use them when she had time. She also planned to save some seeds in her storage space.
After Wen Qian carried everything Auntie Chen had brought into the house, she placed the ingredients that needed refrigeration in the fridge and left the rest on the floor. She would cook them for dinner.
Once the bedframe on the second floor was cleaned, Wen Qian opened it flat to let the sun shine on the mattress.
She then went downstairs, turned on the faucet by the water vat, and started scrubbing the vat and the nearby stovetop and pots.
Although she had wiped the ceramic wall tiles yesterday, today she needed to clean out the iron pots and water vat, as well as the bowls and dishes in the cupboard.
The wooden chopsticks had become hairy. She threw them all out and used disposable ones instead.
It was the peak of summer. No chicks, ducklings or goslings could survive at this point, and seedlings were impossible to obtain.
At this temperature, nothing could be grown either. As a result, Wen Qian felt rather listless doing nothing in the countryside.
Yet people always needed something to occupy themselves. Over the next few days, therefore, she set her agenda to be cleaning, tidying and gathering firewood.
Once the water vat was cleaned, Wen Qian turned on the faucet to fill it. After washing the pots clean, she also filled them with water and put some firewood in the stove to keep the water warm.
Wen Qian then took the pot lids outside to scrub off the soot. She left the wooden ones in the sun and put the stainless steel ones back on the pots.
With these chores done, there were hardly any matches left in the house, save for some dry twigs. To start a fire, she would need pine fur or oak leaves.
From the cattle shed, Wen Qian fetched Grandma's tools for gathering tinder―a pine needle rake and a triple millet sieve.
She was unable to maneuver the triple sieve properly under the pine tree. Next time, she would bring a bamboo basket or a woven bag instead.
There was a thick layer of pine fur accumulated beneath the pine, as no one had been there to gather fire starter for years.
Wen Qian raked up an apronful of fur and spread it out at the front door to dry before storing it in a corner of the kitchen as tinder.
Pine fur caught fire easily with just a spark. With the addition of some small twigs, thicker branches could be added once the fire grew, followed by logs to sustain it. That was how the traditional brick stove worked―this was common knowledge for starting a fire back in the village. Aside from pine fur, oak leaves were also commonly used.
The water in the pots came to a boil. Wen Qian ladled it into buckets and brought it out to soak the bowls and dishes on the corridor bench.
She would need to boil several rounds of water in the pots today to use for cleaning. This would also get rid of grime in the pots themselves.
As it was hot out, Wen Qian planned to wash all the bowls clean then dry them in the sun before putting some away in her storage space.
If not for the fact that the house shared a foundation with the ground, she reckoned she might try storing the entire building in there!
The temperature quickly soared after 10 a.m. By that time, even the farmers would have retreated indoors to escape the scorching sun.
The summer sun was merciless. It was asking for trouble to linger outdoors between noon and 3 p.m. One could easily get sunburnt.
At least the current Wen Qian could not stand it. She had also heard of people being literally cooked alive in the heat.
She took out a couple bottles of water frozen into ice cubes from the fridge and placed them in front of the electric fan to cool down a little.
Grandpa used to spread a thin film on the floor of the main hall and sleep right on it to keep cool in summer. As a child, Wen Qian used to run around barefoot.
Thinking of the elderly couple, Wen Qian decided she would go to town tomorrow to buy some paper offerings for them.
For the next three hours she needed not step out. Lunch was the packed rice from her storage space.
Having just eaten, she was not inclined to nap right away. So Wen Qian busied herself with some housekeeping.
She planned to organize all the farming tools and containers like vats, buckets, and winnowing baskets in one spot.
Any free space would be cleared, and whatever could fit would go into the cupboards.
There was too much clutter in the house.
Wen Qian hoped to keep her home tidy and sparse, with only the essentials and a couple decorative items―next to nothing else.
It would be much easier to keep clean, pleasant to behold, and agreeable to the mood.
A messy environment clouded one's thoughts.
Before getting started, Wen Qian tied a scarf around her head to keep dust from her just-washed hair. She was not about to soil the bed she would soon retire to.
Even in summer, she was not keen on washing her hair daily. For one, she was lazy, and for another, it was bad for the scalp.
Of course she would still wash after sweating, to avoid odor issues that would banish her from her bed.
The washing machine had been disinfected since yesterday and was now stationed at the corridor once more. Wen Qian collected all the bedsheets and quilts in the house for it to start working on.
She hung some laundry lines and propped up bamboo poles in the yard, for there was no lack of sunlight in summer.
Wen Qian also took out the winter clothes to sun. Some were hers, some Grandpa and Grandma's―she could not bear to throw their things away so she had kept the wearable ones.
She brought the winnowing baskets and vats out to sun and wash as well. There were all sizes of vats for storing rice, flour, fried peanuts and such. A decent variety of jars and crocks too.
Wen Qian wondered where they had come from―whether they were store-bought or homemade.
She had always felt these containers superior to plastic boxes for storage, though they were a bit cumbersome.
